Tequila: The New (Old) Symbol of Mexican Pride

We were more than a little surprised by this NPR article about a new political group called the Tequila Party that hopes to get out the Latino vote in 2012 in order to combat Arizona's restrictive immigration law. Tequila, really? That's the best way to serve the struggle of undocumented immigrants? With shots?

But then we thought about it a little longer and... Well, why not? Tequila is delicious, after all, and one of Mexico's most profitable international exports. When we called up Esquire's drinks correspondent David Wondrich, he told us of another, much older political story involving tequila: After the Mexican Revolution, the country's government tried to ban the agave product in an "excess of revolutionary fervor." They didn't, and tequila quickly became an enduring symbol of all that is Mexican, including, maybe even especially in the U.S., where it is consumed with patriotic fervor. We're not sure if the Tequila Party was deliberately referencing this history, but it might help out their case either way. "They'll get a lot of non-Mexicans to join the Tequila Party," Wondrich says. "Every college student in America is going to join. Which is not a bad thing."